The Confluence

The Confluence Part XIV

Adrian moved to his right holding the crowbar low, as the first of the crowd ran at him, arms flailing at him. The person was a gnarled old woman, saggy breasts and withered limbs clawing the air as she closed the distance. She was screeching like an angry cat, but once she was in range, Adrian swung the crowbar upwards in a diagonal blow, slamming into the crones ribs with a sickening crunch as the cold metal shattered her ribcage. The yowling stopped immediately and turned into a pained wheeze, as Adrian used the recoil of the blow to swing the crowbar into the back of her head as she bent over. His second blow popped her skull like an egg, the impact making Adrian's hands sting and shake. Her body dropped to the sandy rocks with her brains slithering out of her split skull. Suzie fired at the first person who got closest to her, buckshot tearing apart a young man's stomach as he fell backwards, hands clutching at entrails that threatened to burst out of his destroyed gut, screaming the whole time. Suzie pumped the shotgun, and saw an old man with a spear rushing toward her, and without a single thought, she fired again, aiming low and catching the old man's left leg, completely obliterating it into hunks of meaningless meat. His screams joined the nearly eviscerated young man's screams, with Anderson still laughing like a madman. Two more of the people had rushed Adrian, one of his swings breaking one of their arms at the elbow, and another he tore off their entire cheek with a swing, and then he drove the sharp end of the crowbar into the throat of the woman with a broken arm. She made an awful gurgling sound as she tried to breathe through a smashed and pierced throat. Adrian watched as the young woman choked on her own blood, and then turned to the man with only one cheek left, his all too white teeth shining through the bleeding hole in his face. Adrian let out a guttural scream, swung again right into the bleeding hole. Teeth and blood and strips of skin sprayed out of the man's face as he dropped to the rocky ground. Suzie moved forward, swinging the stock of the shotgun into the old screaming man's face with a crunch, and he finally stopped screaming. The crowd had thinned somewhat, with more of them moving towards Adrian. Three of them converged towards Suzie, and the last four were about to swarm Adrian who had his back turned. "Adrian! Behind you!" Screamed Suzie, as she fired a shot at one of the crazy people going for Adrian. The shot caught the naked painted man on the side of his head and neck, skin rending itself in spray of misty blood and a few chunks of bone. She turned as she pumped the shotgun, and shot another middle aged woman in the chest, launching her backwards almost ten feet where she fell on her back trying to breathe through the squirting hole in her chest. Adrian turned to the sound of Suzie's scream of warning, just in time to see one the people dive towards him, and using his body weight, slammed Adrian into the rocks of the cave wall. Adrian coughed all the air out of his lungs, and as he tried to gasp for breath, the man who had tackled him into the wall straightened up and faced him with a wicked grin. Before Adrian could even defend himself, the man threw a right hook that mashed Adrian's cheek against his teeth, blood slowly filling his mouth. The impact of the punch left him dazed, and then another explosion of pain from his face as the man punched him again with a left hook. The two others had caught up to the man, and were about to grab his arms to hold him when Adrian hooked the curved end of the crowbar around the back of the man's knee, and pulled. The man immediately fell to one knee, and then Adrian raised the crowbar, and then with as much force as he could, brought the sharp end of the crowbar down on the man's skull, skewering him. The man's face went slack, and the two nearby recoiled, giving Adrian enough time to yank the crowbar out of the man's skull, and swing wildly, almost blindly at them. The two hissed at him, a young woman, who couldn't have been more than nineteen, and a middle aged man that was beginning to go bald with thinning hair. The blood and brain stained crowbar was beginning to weigh heavily in his hands. Then the young girl pulled a spear that was leaning nearby her and rushed towards him, yowling in an animalistic war cry, Adrian caught the spear with his left hand, and redirected it into the stone behind him. The spear tip scraped and caught itself in a small divot in the rocks, and in his right hand Adrian raised the crowbar, and hit her right on the nose with the curve of the crowbar, shattering her small nose. Blood squirted out of her nostrils as her nose seemed to flatten, and she gazed, stunned, into Adrian's eyes. Her hazel eyes bored into his, and in those eyes Adrian only saw the fear of a young girl, who was about to die. He had the crowbar raised for another blow but the hesitation he felt allowed the middle aged man to grab a weapon of his own, and suddenly Adrian felt what must've been the world's biggest splinter drive itself into his ribs. It didn't get very deep, but the pain was everywhere. He screamed, and was still screaming when he redirected his blow towards the man thrusting a spear into him. He swung directly into the man's neck, and as he did the young girl threw her head forward a bit into Adrian's shoulder. Adrian howled in pain as the girl growled and tore at him with her teeth. He managed to swing again at the now dazed man, cracking him in the temple, and Adrian hit him again, flattening the man's face into the rock wall, all the while his left hand gripping a fistful of the girls long brown hair as he tried to pull her off him. The impact of his last strike against the man hurt his hand so much the crowbar flew out of his grip just after that final blow. Still pulling on the girl's hair, with her teeth still tearing into his flesh, Adrian pulled the spear out of his ribs with his right hand, and thrust the spear as deep as he could force it into the girl's bare side. He pulled the spear out as blood began to stream out of the girl's wound, and he thrust the spear into her again. And again. And again, each stab weakened the girl's bite. Finally, after the fifth time driving the spear into her now hole riddled side, he felt her teeth loosen entirely, and he had about two seconds of relief as he pulled her head away from his shoulder before the pain hit him again. He could feel himself losing blood with each heartbeat as it drained from his spear wound and shoulder.